Advocates count on signatures Tax relief group expects proposal on 2003 ballot

AUGUSTA – Advocates for property tax relief said they are hoping to deliver a record number of voter signatures Friday to state election officials in their effort to get their proposal on the November ballot.

The Citizens to Reduce Local Property Taxes Statewide must deliver certified signatures of at least 50,519 Maine voters in order to meet the state’s requirements for inclusion on the ballot this year.

Dana Lee, leader of the group, would not say Thursday how many signatures will be delivered, but added, “We understand it to be a record number” ever turned over or collected on one day.

The group concentrated its signature gathering at the polls this past Election Day.

The question, initiated by the Maine Municipal Association, seeks to require the state to pay 55 percent of funding for public education from kindergarten through 12th grade. Lee said property taxes would drop by an estimated 15 percent statewide if its proposal passes. The drop would vary from community to community.

A competing proposal backed by the Maine Tax Action Network would cap personal property-tax rates to a maximum rate of 1 percent of the value of the property.

MTAN leader Carol Palesky of Topsham said Thursday her campaign is very much alive and its organizers will decide next Wednesday whether to submit voter signatures in time to get their proposal on the 2003 ballot.

The deadline for turning in petitions in time to make the November ballot is next Thursday, election officials said.

Palesky said her group has enough signatures, but was not sure Thursday how many were certified.

Palesky called the Maine Municipal proposal “nonsense” because it seeks to make the state do something it has already agreed to do.

“If [the state] couldn’t fund 55 percent when they had money, how in heck are they going to pay 55 percent when we have a $1 billion deficit?” Palesky said.

Lee responded that there is no language in state law that binds the state to the 55 percent subsidy, while his group’s proposal would obligate the state to the payment.

A third tax initiative led by Debi Davis of Raymond seeks to require tax or fee increases to be approved by two-thirds of a governing body and the voters in a referendum. A message left at Davis’ home was not immediately returned.

The Secretary of State’s Office lists those three and five other initiative campaigns in progress.

One of two gambling proposals would allow slot machines at horse racing tracks; the other would allow an Indian-owned casino and resort in southern Maine.

A sixth proposal seeks to ban importation of animals into Maine for use on commercial large-game shooting areas.

Of the final two initiatives, one would expand the current medical-marijuana law to increase the number of plants a person may possess; the other would allow hemp to be grown for use in agriculture and industry.